---
layout: post
permalink: beta-3-1/
title: 'Rainmeter 3.1 Release'
---
<h1>Rainmeter 3.1 Release</h1>
<hr />
<p>There are a lot of new features and capabilities in the latest
Rainmeter 3.1.  You can safely install the new 3.1 release version right
 over your existing Rainmeter 3.0 installation, and nothing you have
done will be lost or changed. There is never any need to uninstall any
earlier version of Rainmeter to use the newest version.</p>

<h3>Major additions in Rainmeter 3.1</h3>

<p>New <a href="//docs.rainmeter.net/manual-beta/measures/general-options/ifconditions">IfConditions</a> functionality added.  This is a powerful extension to the concepts provided in IfActions, allowing multiple tests and actions, both "true" and "false" testing, and the ability to use logical AND and OR operators in the conditions. See <a href="//forum.rainmeter.net/viewtopic.php?p=94135#p94135">Change Announcements</a> for details and example skins.</p>

<p>New <a href="//docs.rainmeter.net/manual-beta/measures/general-options/ifmatchactions">IfMatchAction</a> functionality added. Supports taking actions based on a regular expression comparison with a measure's string value. See <a href="//forum.rainmeter.net/viewtopic.php?f=113&t=17421">Change Announcements</a> for details and examples.</p>

<p>New <a href="//docs.rainmeter.net/manual-beta/measures/string">String</a> measure type added. Used to create and manipulate string values. See <a href="//forum.rainmeter.net/viewtopic.php?f=113&t=17420">Change Announcements</a> for details and examples.</p>

<h3>Other enhancements in Rainmeter 3.1</h3>

<p>Added new LAN_CONNECTIVITY and INTERNET_CONNECTIVITY <a href="//docs.rainmeter.net/manual-beta/plugins/sysinfo#SysInfoType">SysInfoType</a> options to the SysInfo plugin. Measure will return "1" on success and "-1" on failure.</p>

<p>Added new IDLE_TIME <a href="//docs.rainmeter.net/manual-beta/plugins/sysinfo#SysInfoType">SysInfoType</a> option to the SysInfo plugin. This will return the number of seconds since the last user input (mouse or keyboard) to the operating system.</p>

<p>Added new <a href="//docs.rainmeter.net/manual-beta/bangs#SkinCustomMenu">!SkinCustomMenu</a> bang to display only user-defined <a href="//docs.rainmeter.net/manual-beta/skins/rainmeter-section#Context">context menu</a> items instead of the normal skin context menu.</a></p>

<p>Added new <a href="//docs.rainmeter.net/manual-beta/variables/section-variables#EscapeRegExp">:EscapeRegExp</a> measure section variable parameter. This will return the string value of the measure with all regular expression <a href="http://www.regular-expressions.info/characters.html">reserved characters</a> escaped.</p>

<p>Added new <a href="//docs.rainmeter.net/manual-beta/variables/section-variables#EncodeURL">:EncodeURL</a> measure section variable parameter. This will return the string value of the measure as a <a href="http://www.blooberry.com/indexdot/html/topics/urlencoding.htm">URL-encoded</a> string.</p>

<p>Added support for opening the Windows properties or context menu dialogs for file or folder objects using the <a href="//docs.rainmeter.net/manual/plugins/fileview#OtherCommands">FileView</a> plugin. Details at <a href="//forum.rainmeter.net/viewtopic.php?f=113&t=17693">Change Announcements</a>.</p>

<h3>Version history and details</h3>

<ul>
<li>Detailed explanations of major changes at <a href="//forum.rainmeter.net/viewforum.php?f=106">Change Announcements</a>.</li>
<li>Additional details on bug fixes and other minor changes at <a href="//docs.rainmeter.net/history">Version History</a>.</li>
<li>Full history of all changes to the Rainmeter code at <a href="https://github.com/rainmeter/rainmeter/commits/master">Rainmeter GitHub</a>.</li>
</ul>
